Passion for sewing, fashion and fabric

Personal development not New Year’s resolutions!

Are you, like me, one of those people all full of good intentions for the New Year? [I do it when I get back from a nice holiday too-maintain the healthy tanned-colour of my legs, manicure my nails, read more, be less stressed etc etc] My usual NY ones are, almost without exception, eat more healthily, exercise more, read more, go to the cinema more often, manicure my nails….and so it goes on, none of them are what you might call life-affirming or mind-expanding though. In my defence, one of my resolutions for 2015 was to go to more galleries and exhibitions and I achieved that in spades! (Going to the McQueen at the V&A eight times alone-I’ve definitely had value for money out of my V&A membership)

This year just before Christmas I was chatting with an old friend and she described how she and various work colleagues use the new year as a chance to set goals for themselves that aren’t work related at all but they set them in a similar way, within timeframes etc. For example one of her colleagues decided she wanted to learn more about Russian art (a bit high-brow I know but stick with it) she found a short evening course somewhere (don’t know where I’m afraid) and off she went. She found it fascinating but it also gave her the opportunity to meet other like-minded people, it was soft-touch networking really. Some months later she had the chance to work in Russia and because of the various connections and acquaintances she’d made she was able to gain a lot more from the experience, value-added if you like.

Whilst I’m not proposing to study Russian art it did get me thinking. I’ve wanted to expand my own sewing repertoire for a while but with over 40 years of sewing experience I’ve tried most things with varying degrees of success-or not! Tailoring is the one area that I’m a bit unsure of-getting an excellent quality of finish so that it looks clean and precise and not just ‘homemade’. I’d investigated a few colleges for courses both local and in London and a name I noticed cropping up on Instagram was Morley College near Waterloo. I had a look at their website and lo and behold they have a one day a week course for 10 weeks, starting the second week of January. It costs £375 but when you times that out over the number of hours involved it’s a positive bargain! I sent off my enquiry (you need tutor-approval) and got an email back listing the pattern-cutting and sewing requirements for joining. It’s funny how, when you’re confronted with a list things that you’ve been doing literally for decades you suddenly start to doubt that you can actually do them….or is that just me?

Anyway, I replied in the positive and was passed as ‘approved’.

Basically now I just need to start my personal development for 2016! I’m very excited about it although a little apprehensive. I’ll need to commute to Waterloo every Tuesday but I’ve done it before and I can do it again. I’ll definitely be posting about the experience again as the weeks go by-good or bad…I’ll certainly feel like the new girl that’s for sure.

As for my own teaching here in Hertfordshire, I shall continue with that and enjoy every moment of enabling other people to achieve their personal goals in dressmaking and sewing….much better than resolutions which drop off the radar so quickly [although of course if the weight-loss goal goes well I could help you to alter your own clothes to fit!]

Happy and Healthy 2016 to all of you, and thank you for all your support in 2015